Chernobyl
children's 'fantastic' day out in Blackpool

Despite
being busy with preparations for this year's Rossendale Children's Day
event, Lancashire-based Russian ice dance stars Alexei Kislitsyn and Natalia
Pestova still found time to organise a very special day out for a group
of 17 children from Mogilev in Belarus - a region badly hit by the 1986
Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster.

Natalia said
they were approached by the Clitheroe-based 'Friends of Chernobyl's Children'
charity after organising a similar trip for the last two years: "Obviously
we were more than happy to help out again. There is no knowing what the
future holds for these children: many have problems with their auto-immune
systems and the incidence of children's cancers in the region is up by
800%." she explained.

The
pair approached the manager of the Pleasure Beach and Hot Ice production
company Stageworks Worldwide who readily agreed to give free tickets for
all the children.An interpreter who accompanied the 7-12 year olds said
"The Blackpool trip is always arranged towards the end of the four weeks,
because it's the highlight of the visit for them all." She added "Ten of
them went on the Big One and were absolutely thrilled by it, whilst seven
year-old twins Dima and Kristina on their first visit to England were wide-eyed
as they watched the ice show." Nastya Ilenkova (11) who has been here five
times, said "When we're in England we go to lots of different places and
it's fantastic, but the Ice Show is my favourite." Alexei said that seeing
the happiness on the children's faces at the end of the day was unbelievable
and Natalia added "We're just glad to be able to play a small part in bringing
them a little happiness."